


Growing Pains

by AlessandraDC



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)
Genre: Cussing, Scars, Turtle Tots, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 13:50:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11037474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlessandraDC/pseuds/AlessandraDC
Summary: Eight year-old Raph is determined to get his real weapons, just like his big brother. Entry for the Writer's Nexus on how Raph got the scar on his lip.





	Growing Pains

The eight-year old terrapin lay awake in bed. He had been tossing and turning for a while since lights out, but Raphael just could not sleep. He was still upset about what happened earlier in the day. In the darkness, he could just make out the form of his sleeping older brother on the bed across from him. There was the source of his frustration. Why did Leo have to be such a show off? Raph grumbled as he shifted on his bed again. He turned his shell to his brother, while internally going over what happened earlier that day for the hundredth time.

During their morning practice, Master Splinter had made an announcement. He had asked his sons to kneel on the mat before him and with great solemnity announced to all his sons that Leonardo was “graduating.” Apparently, their older brother had been performing so well with the practice swords that he was moving on to real weapons, the katana. Oh, no. Not one katana. Double katanas. They had all drooled over the beautiful long blades. And now, of course, they belonged to Leo.

Don, Mikey, and Raph congratulated their big brother, like good siblings, while sharing eye rolls behind his back. It was no surprise that out of all of them, Leo would be moving on first. He did practice a lot after all. Bah. Raph had spent the rest of morning practice glaring at Leo as he went through his katas with the swords. The steel glinted tauntingly as the older turtle spun the weapons gently under Master Splinter’s vigilant eye and constant instruction. 

Raph decided that when he got his weapons he would be better -  _ the best _ . Not only that, but he would look so cool. None of this slow careful shit, like Leo. Raph should have been the one graduating. He was ready. With that mental ity , he decided it was time to get weapons for himself. No more of this wooden sword crap. 

Raphael slid his legs over the side of his bed and slowly eased himself out so as not to wake anyone. Despite his bulkier physique, he could  be  as sneaky as Mikey when he needed to be. He managed to walk quietly across the room on his large scaled feet and slipped out of their bedroom area. A quick glance over his shoulder revealed that aside from Leo having shifted in his sleep, no one had heard him. 

The lair was dark except for a few small shafts of light filtering into their home from other parts of the tunnels. Their dad was most likely sleeping too. He tended to  have worn himself out by nighttime. Raphael slipped into the room that served as their dojo and paused in admiration to take in the carefully hung weapons on the far wall. The metal glinted softly in the dim lights, as if it was calling his name. Raph smirked. Tonight he was going to be graduating too. Just like his big brother. 

Raphael crept closer and eyed all of the weapons carefully. He ran a three-fingered hand over the blades of the katanas Leo had held earlier in the day. The metal was cool and smooth, the edge sharp. He stood on his tiptoes to reach for the sword when he hesitated. Raph  did not want to imitate his brother. He wanted to be better. His eyes travelled to the pair of sais and lingered.

Raph had seen them in movies and his father had demonstrated how to use them a couple of times. “Oh yeah,” whispered Raph and steered his attention to three-pronged weapons. Just as with the swords, he had to stretch his body to  reach the steel hanging on the wall . As soon as the weapons were in his hands, Raph stumbled back a step. They were much heavier than he had imagined. 

“Holy crap,” he breathed, as he curled his hands around the handles. They seemed to fit perfectly in his hands despite his limited digits. His fingers curled in between the blades and he brought the sais up to his face. Raph nearly burst out laughing just because of the sheer thrill of having the weapons in his hands. He was definitely going to tell his brothers about it tomorrow. Shit, yeah. 

Raph stood battle-ready, like they did at practice, with his feet spread apart for better stability and imitated moves from some of the action movies he had watched with his brothers. He thrusted one of the sais out in front of him and then kicked his leg out while holding the weapons. He stumbled a bit on the landing but recovered quickly. It was tough to do those moves  while  holding the sai. He gave up any semblance of form and settled on hacking and slashing around the room. Each time he felt more confident until he tried to spin one of the weapons in his hand. Raph had seen it done somewhere... maybe a movie or comic. 

As the weapon spun in his hand, Raph fumbled and the long middle blade caught the upper right corner of his lip. The sai slipped from his hand and fell to the ground with a loud clatter. “Oh shit!” One of his hands was clutching the remaining sai and the other flew to his lip. Raphael could feel a painful sting and warm liquid dripping onto his hand. He stood in dazed shock for a couple of seconds.

Before Raphael’s brain kick started back into action, he sensed a presence at the door. Immediately he cringed imagining his father discovering him out of bed and with one of his precious weapons in hand. ~~~~ He would undoubtedly send him to the hashi. However, it turned out to be his older brother, whose silhouette he could just make out in the doorway. Raph was not sure if he felt relief or annoyance. 

“Raph, what are you doing?” Leo hissed. The sounds coming from their modest dojo had woken him up. “What was that noise?”

“Uhh,” Raph hesitated to respond still a little shell - shocked from his accident and unsure of how his brother was going to react. Suddenly he heard the sound of their father’s bedroom open and Raph completely froze. He would be in such deep shit if his dad found out. That was one of the big Hamato household rules - weapons were off limits unless dad was watching. 

“Leonardo, what are you doing out of bed?” Raph heard their father’s voice on the other side of the door and remained perfectly still. He could see his brother’s silhouette turn to face their father. 

“Sorry dad, I just tripped in the dark. I didn’t mean to wake you up. Just um, couldn’t sleep. I was going to do some meditation and then try going back to bed. Is that ok with you?” his older brother lied smoothly though if their father believed him, that remained to be seen. 

“Are you alright, my son?” Splinter asked, concern evident in his voice. 

“Oh, uh, yeah. Too much pizza, I think. I’ll be ok,” Leo replied. 

Splinter’s next response sounded more distant and Raphael realized he was retreating to his bedroom. “Goodnight my son. Let me know if you need anything. And please remember to extinguish the lights when you go back to bed.”

“I will,” Leo said before slipping into the dojo and shutting the door behind him. 

Raphael breathed out a sigh of relief. He could feel the blood now running down his chin and the wrist of the hand still clutching his mouth. 

The light of a candle flickered on and Leo hurried to his younger brother. “What the hell were you-” His older brother paused taking in the scene - Raphael’s hand still tightly wrapped around one sai, while the other weapon lay at his feet. Small splatters of blood dotted the floor and Leo could see the liquid oozing down his brother’s hand. “You’re bleeding.”

“Yeah, I, uh-”

“What were you doing messing around with those?” Leo asked, gesturing at the sais. 

Raph’s golden eyes locked with Leo’s cool blue ones and they had a silent standoff that lasted only a brief moment before his older brother was moving into action. 

“Crap. Dad’s gonna kill you. You know that right?” Leo said as he turned away and crossed the room in a couple of strides.

“Yeah, I know!” Raph snapped and regretted it immediately as pain shot through his lip. He swallowed any sound or indication of his pain. Instead, he stooped down to pick up the sai and more blood gushed from his lip. “Shit,” he mumbled tasting the coppery liquid in his mouth.

“Leave it,” ordered his older brother as he returned. Leo pulled the other sai from Raph’s hand and the younger turtle allowed  his brother to push him down into a sitting position. He watched his older brother open up their small first aid kit. 

Leonardo moved Raph’s hands away and the bigger turtle sat quietly while he let his brother tend to his injury. His brother’s clear blue eyes remained trained on Raph’s lip as he wiped at the blood carefully. 

“How does it look?” Raphael asked. 

“Don’t talk,” shushed Leo. “You’ll make it bleed more.” After a moment’s pause he added, “It’s not too big, but it’s deep.” He pressed gauze onto the cut and instructed Raph to put pressure on it. 

“Ya think it’ll scar?” 

Leo took Raph’s bloodied hand in his and wiped the dark sticky liquid away with an antibacterial wipe. “Maybe.” Lucky for them, their dad had taught them how to do some basic first aid. 

His older brother wiped up the blood on the floor and gathered all the used gauze after a few minutes. Once he was done with the clean-up, Leo lifted the gauze off the injury and pressed a butterfly stitch to Raph’s upper lip. He took a moment to look over his work. 

“Dad’s going to know,” Leo said matter-of-factly. 

Raphael nodded, “Yeah.” 

Leo started putting all the supplies back and then looked up at Raph again, “Why were you in here anyway?” 

Raphael frowned. He was not about to tell Leo what had brought him to the dojo in the first place, especially since he now felt like a complete idiot. His plan to be cool and outmaneuver his older brother had completely failed, of course, and now here was Leo cleaning up his mess, as usual. “None of your business,” Raph finally said. 

Leo looked at him with mild surprise. “Fine,” he said. “Go to bed. I’ll clean up.” 

Raph was going to argue. He  _ wanted _ to argue, but decided against it. Feeling deflated and sure he would be in trouble the next day, he nodded and headed back to bed.

The next morning, Raphael woke up with a throbbing lip. When he cracked his eyes open, his older brother’s bed was vacant, as it had been when Raph fell asleep, and Donnie’s. Even Mikey’s bed was empty. Raphael rolled out of bed and looked in the small cracked mirror they had sitting on a shelf. His upper lip was puffy and there was dried blood still on his face. He cursed under his breath and exited their shared bedroom. 

The young turtle went to the bathroom and washed his face. There was no way to cover up the nasty cut on his upper lip but Raph had come up with a story. He grabbed breakfast and joined his brothers in the dojo for morning practice. The turtle tried to calm his racing heart so as not to give himself away to their father. 

After they had all stretched and gone through a few slow katas, Splinter paired them off. Strangely enough, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Leonardo were to work together. Taking turns sparring. 

~~~~ “What about me?”  Raphael asked. 

“You, Raphael,” said his father turning to face his son, “will be training with these.” Splinter plucked the sais from their place on the wall and offered them to his son.

Raphael blanched, “Uh, ya sure? I don’t know if I’m ready,” he shifted awkwardly. 

“If you’re going to be using the weapons, you may as well learn to use them correctly,” he leaned closer to his son’s face, “so that we may avoid any further accidents.” His father examined his face carefully, “I believe your brother did a good job of caring for your injury, but it will most certainly leave a mark.”

Damn. Their father knew. “Look, dad,” Raphael started but stopped when his father held up his hand. 

“Raphael, I do not want to hear any excuses. You know the rules but chose to disregard them. I believe you already learned an important lesson last night. Rules are there for a reason. But do not think for one moment that you have escaped punishment.” Splinter stood straight and looked across the dojo to his other three sons. “You and Leonardo are to remain after practice.” 

Leonardo stopped mid-swing, his blue eyes widening and he threw a questioning look at their father. 

“For lying,” said Splinter without needing to hear the question that was surely on his son’s lips. He turned back to Raphael and held out the sais, “Now, take the weapons.”

Raphael groaned inwardly as he wrapped his hands around the sais once again. Who knew how long he would have to be in the hashi. Damn. However, a slow smirk still spread across his face. He was graduating, just as he wanted, just like his big brother. Not only would Raphael be mastering weapons known for breaking swords, but he would  also  be sporting a cool scar to go along with them. 


End file.
